A Pastor Is Suing A Woman For $500,000 For Posting Bad Online Reviews Of His Church

There’s a holy war erupting in Beaverton, Oregon, after a mother
and daughter gave a local church negative reviews on the
Internet.

Now, Pastor Charles O’Neal of Beaverton Grace Bible Church is
reportedly suing the duo, among a few other commenters, for
$500,000 as a result of their posted assessments of the church.

According to Julie Ann Smith, the mother, her family exited the
church a few years ago after she claims that they were
inexplicably shunned.

Then, she says church members were told not to associate with her
or her family.

“If I went to Costco or any place in town, if I ran into
somebody, they would turn their heads and walk the other
way,” she told KATU.com.

“All we did was asked questions. We just raised concerns. There’s
no sin in that.”

So, following these negative experiences, she took to the
Internet to voice her opinions on both Google and DEX — forums that allow for free
expression and honest reviews. Her online comments were
quickly met with counter praises from current church members who
railed against her claims.

Although this church touts to be “Beaverton Grace Bible”, the
“grace” word is lacking. This is more of a legalistic church
where if you don’t do things their way (which is the “only” way),
you will have challenges. Beaverton Grace is famous for shunning
former members/attendees without giving an explanation or
following Biblical principles on disagreements.

You will be fine in this church if you never question the elders
or pastor. Their emphasis is heavy on evangelism to the extent
that you get the feeling if you do not regularly evangelize
“their way”, you are not a true Christian. Be wary of churches
that broadcast that they are one of the only few remaining
churches that preach the Word. There are true Bible-believing
churches who preach the Word, don’t mince the hard teachings, yet
also have a balance of truth and grace and humble leaders. Do not
be deceived.

A screen shot from the blog's front page.

“I thought, I’m just going to post a review,” Smith told KATU.com. “We do it with restaurants and
hotels and whatnot, and I thought, why not do it with this
church?”

I began this blog in Feb. 2012 after noticing that the Google
reviews I had posted of my former church were being removed. Days
after the commencement of this blog, I received a legal summons
suing me and three others for defamation to the tune of $500,000.
The story of spiritual abuse needs to be told. People are being
hurt emotionally and spiritually by pastors who use bully tactics
and we need a place to learn, to talk freely, and to heal. I will
not be silenced

Little did Smith know that the church wouldn’t take her online
activities lightly. The stay-at-home mom is dumbfounded by the
large sum of money being sought out by the church and claims that
this is simply not an amount of cash that she could dole out.

In his lawsuit, the pastor claims that Smith’s use of the words
“creepy,“ ”cult,“ ”control tactics“ and ”spiritual abuse,” among
others, constitute as defamation. In addition to Smith, the
lawsuit targets her daughter and three other commenters.

“What somebody does in the church is one thing, but when you get
out into society we have the right to free speech, and it may not
be what people want to hear, but we absolutely have that right,”
Smith said, doubling down on her stance. ”He can say what he
wants in the church and say, don‘t talk about this or don’t talk
about that, or don’t talk to this person, but when you’re out in
the civil world, you don’t do that anymore.”

According to KATU.com, the pastor and his family have declined
thus far to give their side of the story. The Smith family has
filed a free-speech motion in an effort to dismiss the lawsuit. A
judge will examine the case later this month.